“... most of the vast space about us remained
in darkness, with who-knew-what lurking in the depths of its murky corners. The
stench of filth was indescribable, and a faint, cloying mist hung in the air.”
Title: The Disgrace of
Kitty Grey
Author: Mary Hooper
First Published: 2013
Language: English
Pages: 282
Summary:
Kitty is living a happy, carefree life as a dairymaid in the countryside. The grand family she is employed by looks after her well, and she loves her trade, caring for the gentle cows and working in the cool, calm dairy. And then, of course, there is Will, the river man who she thinks is very fond of her, and indeed she is of him. Surely he will ask her to marry him soon? Then one day disaster strikes: Will disappears. Kitty is first worried and then furious. She fears that Will has only been leading her on all this time, and has now gone to London to make his fortune, forgetting about her completely. So, when Kitty is asked to go to London to pick up a copy of Pride and Prejudice, the latest novel by the very fashionable Jane Austen, Kitty leaps at the chance to track down Will. But Kitty has no idea how vast London is, and how careful she must be. It is barely a moment before eagle-eyed pickpockets have spotted the country-born-and-bred Kitty and relieved her of her money and belongings.
Review:
I didn’t expect much when I started reading this
book. It certainly has a rather low rating on Goodreads and I hadn’t heard of
it before either. I went in completely unaware of what was awaiting me. However,
I must tell that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel.
Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres
to read even though I don’t get around to read those kinds of books as much as
I would like. I’ve been studying about the era this story took place and know
quite a lot about it, but I still learned new things. That shows how much
research went into writing this book and that’s certainly something I appreciate.
The best part of this book was the plot. It was so entertaining that I had
trouble putting this book down. One of the themes dealt with within this novel
was the famous “rich vs poor” theme. It was depicted in a great way in my
opinion and was pivotal when discussing this era.
However, even
though the plot was perfect, the book did lack certain things in my opinion.
One of the things I missed was the emotional aspect of the story. Many issues
took place, and being an easy crying, those things were certainly cry material,
but I didn’t even get emotional when reading these parts, let alone tearing up.
That’s why I believe that the story is not as moving as it could be. That doesn’t
change the fact that it’s a page-turner though.
Another issue
I found when reading the book is the language. Now, I believe this is rather a
preference of mine, but when I read dialogues, I like it when it’s written in a
way that that person is speaking. Kitty was a milkmaid but at times was
speaking as if she were a lady of high class. I did sense that the writer was
trying to depict the fact that she was a milkmaid, but it wasn’t quite there
yet in my opinion.
I’d recommend
this book to anyone who enjoys reading historical fiction and romance.
Rating: ★★★★☆
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